If you were at Homeland in Long Beach last night, you would've been treated to a special performance a la Homeland's Disco Night presented by the lockin' and waackin' class. Led by Tiffany "Jimini" Bong from Syrenz Crew, several of the students dressed up in trademark disco outfits and Afro wigs. They even plugged in portable party lights into the walls to set the mood. Needless to say, the lockers and waackers got down for the enthusiastic crowd. It's rare to see something like that at a session. Usually, folks go to a session and practice individually, in pairs, or may even try a routine with a few other students. Rarely is there a performance. But at Homeland, we're seeing community in full force when we have students sharing what they've learned in a playful performance. That just goes to show how special Homeland has become to many of the dancers currently practicing there. It's their family, their community, their second home.
You can see a clip of Homeland's Disco Night here:
As dancers, we're often drawn to each other because it's rare to find friends who share a common passion like ours. Most people are afraid to dance because of being self-conscious. But when we find other dancers, we want to spend as much time with them as possible - practicing, going to clubs, competing with and against each other. We desire community in its rawest, most intimate form. We want to belong to something greater, bigger than ourselves. And that's where a place like Homeland has offered these opportunities for over a decade for street dancers of all ages.
Why is it so important for us to want to belong? American culture celebrates individual achievement and strength. We are a nation of cowboys and cowgirls. But that individual greatness is missing something vital when it's done outside of community. As humans, we're hard-wired for relationship. We're inherently built to communicate and relate with different degrees of success. The very nature of our dance allows us to open up to each other, to share our true selves in a conversation informed by movement and musicality.
It's a beautiful thing, realizing our desire to want to belong. Maybe that's why there's so much emphasis within progressive hip hop culture about the "community" and the "culture" as a whole. We're thinking about the future and how later generations will be connected to what we're shaping. Even as the years pass by, we'll all belong to this community we're creating right now.
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